Thank you for pointing out what is so painfully obvious to anyone who's paying attention. JFK did not suffer cognitive decline before his assassination. Reagan exhibited cognitive problems only in the last year (1988) of his second and last term. (He was diagnosed with dementia in 1990.)
FDR's real problem wasn't his polio, but his heart condition in the 1944 election campaign. A media far more deferential than today's did its best to cover up his condition, but everyone in Washington knew what was happening. That was why the Democratic choice for VP was so important that year, and everyone involved was conscious of it. They did remember Wilson's 1919 stroke.
Nothing shows better the recklessness of the Democratic elites in 2020, with their anti-Trump obsession, and their very consequential blocking of younger candidates. The Democratic contest ended up -- let me be blunt -- as a nursing home fight between a borderline senile senator and an aging dinosaur far-left senator.
The average age of the Democratic leadership today is mid-70s to low 80s, depending on how you count. Have you been following the hushed-up stories about Senator Feinstein? At least the Republicans have younger leadership. In the House, it's a full generation younger.
People do get tired and detached, even without dementia, as my father used to say after he turned 70. While reading Sebastian Mallaby's excellent biography of Alan Greenspan, I was struck by Greenspan's growing detachment after the 2000-2 tech crash. He was aware and made it clear that he was concerned about the subsequent housing bubble, contrary to later myth. But policy was increasingly shaped by Bernanke and others a generation+ younger, following the radical QE and low- to zero-rate policies of Japan. Greenspan turned 70 in 1997 and stayed on as chairman for almost another decade. He was blamed for the 2008 crisis, but it's clear that, after the 1997-98 Asian-Latin American-Russian crisis, he was more a figurehead and cheerleader than someone with a firm hand on the wheel.
You make a good point about the Democratic Party leadership. And yes, I have been following the sad story of Senator Feinstein. During the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings she struck me as being pretty much out of it and apparently she's much worse now.
Points taken on JFK and FDR.
As I mentioned, I'm 73. Though my general health is good, the signs of deterioration are there. It's a natural process of course, no point in complaining about it, but like your father I do tire more easily, both physically and mentally, than once was the case. I shudder to think what might happen in a real crisis with Biden in the White House—a man who's always been a fool and is now losing his marbles to boot.
Biden had some surgery in the late 80s, when he wasn't not yet 50, that led back then to some mental deterioration. It was minor then. That might have accelerated, though, once he got into his 70s.
Thank you for pointing out what is so painfully obvious to anyone who's paying attention. JFK did not suffer cognitive decline before his assassination. Reagan exhibited cognitive problems only in the last year (1988) of his second and last term. (He was diagnosed with dementia in 1990.)
FDR's real problem wasn't his polio, but his heart condition in the 1944 election campaign. A media far more deferential than today's did its best to cover up his condition, but everyone in Washington knew what was happening. That was why the Democratic choice for VP was so important that year, and everyone involved was conscious of it. They did remember Wilson's 1919 stroke.
Nothing shows better the recklessness of the Democratic elites in 2020, with their anti-Trump obsession, and their very consequential blocking of younger candidates. The Democratic contest ended up -- let me be blunt -- as a nursing home fight between a borderline senile senator and an aging dinosaur far-left senator.
The average age of the Democratic leadership today is mid-70s to low 80s, depending on how you count. Have you been following the hushed-up stories about Senator Feinstein? At least the Republicans have younger leadership. In the House, it's a full generation younger.
People do get tired and detached, even without dementia, as my father used to say after he turned 70. While reading Sebastian Mallaby's excellent biography of Alan Greenspan, I was struck by Greenspan's growing detachment after the 2000-2 tech crash. He was aware and made it clear that he was concerned about the subsequent housing bubble, contrary to later myth. But policy was increasingly shaped by Bernanke and others a generation+ younger, following the radical QE and low- to zero-rate policies of Japan. Greenspan turned 70 in 1997 and stayed on as chairman for almost another decade. He was blamed for the 2008 crisis, but it's clear that, after the 1997-98 Asian-Latin American-Russian crisis, he was more a figurehead and cheerleader than someone with a firm hand on the wheel.
You make a good point about the Democratic Party leadership. And yes, I have been following the sad story of Senator Feinstein. During the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings she struck me as being pretty much out of it and apparently she's much worse now.
Points taken on JFK and FDR.
As I mentioned, I'm 73. Though my general health is good, the signs of deterioration are there. It's a natural process of course, no point in complaining about it, but like your father I do tire more easily, both physically and mentally, than once was the case. I shudder to think what might happen in a real crisis with Biden in the White House—a man who's always been a fool and is now losing his marbles to boot.
Biden had some surgery in the late 80s, when he wasn't not yet 50, that led back then to some mental deterioration. It was minor then. That might have accelerated, though, once he got into his 70s.